Cultivating with the aid of the Moon, Grit, and the Progressive Farmer

By Elton Camp

The phases of the moon were considered in planting crops. The necessary
information was available from the Farmer’s Almanac. Every rural family regularly
consulted its copy.

“Paw, do you really believe it helps to plant by the moon?” Leamon asked. He’d
gotten beyond such superstition, but felt it unwise to attack it directly.

“I ain’t shore thet hit matters. But they’s no harm done ’n goin’ by hit.” His doubt was
quietly shared by some of his neighbors. Most, however, felt that it was a necessity for
successful farming.

Potatoes were planted on the dark of the moon. Seeds were planted within two
days before a full moon. Nobody planted on the day of the full moon or the day of the
new moon. The Almanac provided detailed instructions. Stories circulated about farmers
who had unwisely violated the planting rules.

“Roscoe planted his cotten unner th’ wrong sign three years ago ’n’ his crop failed
almost total,” a believing neighbor warned. “I tried t’ tell him, but he wouldn’t listen.”

He’d forgotten that the man had turned off sick that year, and had been unable to
give the usual attention to cultivation.

None of them knew of scientific fallacies. If one thing was done and a particular
result followed, that was all the proof needed that the first caused the second. No other
possibility was considered. The Latin expression, “Post hoc, ergo propter hoc” had as
little meaning for them as the concept has for many even in the present. “After this,
therefore because of this” made perfect sense to Milas and his contemporaries. At any
rate, he wasn’t going to take a chance. He planted by the moon.

Farmers had few outside sources of information. One that was well liked was the
broadsheet titled Grit. Started in 1882, it was designed with a rural audience in mind.
Boys sold it farm-to-farm to make a little extra money.

Grit Vendors Sought

 “Mr. Camp, want t’ buy a Grit?” Robert asked. “Hit’s got stuff on gardenin,’
projects y’u kin do, funny stuff, ’n’ religious thangs. I thank y’u might reely like hit.”

“Boy, I’ve bought hit fer years, startin’ long afore y’u wuz born. Y’u don’t have
t’ tell me nothin’ ’bout hit.” He handed the smiling lad the necessary change.

Robert returned in a couple of weeks with a new issue. Grit was well designed to
serve people isolated from cities. The young salesman provided welcome reading
material while he gained valuable lessons in honesty, integrity, and the handling of
money. Such newsboys continued to sell Grit into the 1950s. At the time, few would’ve
imagined it would still be published in the 21st Century.

Another popular magazine was The Progressive Farmer. It started in North

Carolina in 1886. Targeted to the southeast, it provided the newest information on
cultivating crops and raising livestock. Open to new ideas, Milas regularly read it. It
helped him in his own farming and in supervising his sharecroppers. It’d started out as a
broadsheet, but changed to a tabloid. The periodical came in the mail upon subscription.
The publication came to have a central office in Birmingham. The organization, decades
later, gave birth to Southern Living Magazine.

Reading the Progressive Farmer

Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Issue